Free Republic

By Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR from First Things Magazine (June/July 2007) It was a truism—universally accepted until the last decades of the twentieth century—that, wherever the Catholic Church was present, there would be representatives of the religious life: communities of vowed men and women living a frugal common life, praying and working together in Christian service, and offering a witness to the kingdom of God. They belonged to congregations that explicitly took on the responsibility of answering the gospel’s call to leave family, lands, and ownership to follow Jesus Christ. Similar religious communities existed in smaller numbers in the...

A photograph that accompanied the top headline on the Drudge Report at one point Monday looked very familiar to me. It showed two tiny feet peeking through the fingers of a hand, and I thought at first that it was a typical anti-abortion photo that marchers carry at pro-life marches. In fact, it was a photo of Amilia Taylor, born four months ago at 22 weeks gestation, weighing only 10 ounces. She is believed to be the only baby born at less than 23 weeks to have survived. Amilia now weighs four pounds, and doctors are preparing to release...

Response to Brooks Egerton’s Article of March 2, 2003 in the Dallas Morning News The headline of this article claiming that I played down the abuse crisis is an absolute untruth. Anyone reading my books or listening to my talks on this subject knows that this is utterly untrue, that it is a smear. I must respond carefully to the rest of Egerton’s article because of professional confidentiality. I cannot even acknowledge that I spoke to certain people because of their right to privacy. A few obvious points: Egerton says that according to me the sexual abuse scandal is “largely...

Says New Mysteries Will Encourage Reading of GospelsNEW YORK, JUNE 10, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Inspired by John Paul II's declaration of the Year of the Rosary, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, Father Benedict Groeschel, has written a book of meditations on all 20 mysteries of the rosary. Father Groeschel, director of the office of spiritual development for the Archdiocese of New York, recently spoke with ZENIT about "The Rosary: Chain of Hope" (Ignatius), which was written during his personal recitations of the rosary. Q: What have the five new luminous mysteries added to the spirituality of the rosary? Father Groeschel:...